The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1887-11-02
QUEER OLD GRAvESTONES.
QUAINT EPITApHS IN A CoNNEC-
TICUT CEMETERY.

The Burying Place Of Some Of New
Haven's Early Governors-Sam-
pies of Colonial Poetry.
Glancing to the right through the car
window just before the local express
PUSHES upon the little bridge over Mill
Creek to the cast, and dashes on into the
village of New Milford, Conn, the New
York bound passenger gets d glimpse of
one of the quaintest old graveyards in
New England. Its brown. bat's.earcd
gravestones are strewn so near the rail
road track that the laundering express
seems to grind them beneath its wheels.
Some of the gravestones have sunk
almost out of sight. Others, with sides
warped and crumpled, push their weather
stained noses up through the rank,
tangled grasses in defiance of times de-
cay. A few lie prone in shamefaccd
overthrow. The stranger, particularly
If he be an antiquarian, will find rare
grubbing among these rusty old stones.
Some OF the gravcstones are nearly $50
years old Milford was settled in 1889,
and the settlers began to die apparently
about as soon as they got here A good
many never received the Christian burial,
as the Indians attended to their
obsequies without inviting the relatives
or personal friends of the deceased.
One of the earliest inscriptions that is
entirely preserved is on a slab above the
rather pretcntious tomb of Governor
Robert Treat. 1t reads:
Here Lyeth Inferred the Body of Coll
Robert Treat, Esq. Who Faithfnly Served
This Colony in the Post of Governour and
Deputy Governour Near Ye Space of Thirty
Years, and at the Age of Four Score and
Eight Years, Exchanged This Life for Better.
July II, Ammo Dom. no.
Johnathan Law, another Governor of
the colony, is also buried in this grave
yard. He was born in Milford on August
6, 1872, and died there ON November 6,
1850. He was Governor from 1742 until
1850. His resting place, like Governor
Treats, is marked by one of the few flat
other colonial dignitaries have simple
headstones. On Others the early obituary
eulogist has left his copious trade marks.
Here is a sample:
THE truly honorable and pious Roger
Newton, esq.
"An officer of distinguished note in We ex.
pedition 1909 and 1ilO, for many years one
of ye council and colonel of the Second regi-
ment of militia, judge of the court of common
pleas thirty-three years. until he departed
this life, January Is, III, in the Sith year of
his age.
"His mind returned to God .entombed here lies
The part the hero left beneath the skies
Newton as steel; inflexib!e from right,
In faith, in law, in equity, in fight
Another panegyrist relates that Isaac
miles, Esq, was "A gentleman-
distinguished by manly sense,
Genuine intregrity and firmness,
In patriotism and i'll virtue.
After a life active in commerce
And in public employments,
A life very useful to his family
And to the public.
And adds that at last this excellent
gentleman-
worn out by a long and distressing asthma
Borne with singular patience,
lie died on the 18th OF November, 1850
In the 55th year of his age"
Mortuary leeccGtry abounds. Some of it
is about as origIn-LQlnd as startling as the
most versatile genius in this line pro.
duces. Neither young nor old have es.
capped it in the Milford graveyard. Elihu
Fowler, son of Jonathan Fowler. died on
October 8, 1889, three years and fouI
months old, and his untimely fate is thus
graphically epitomized:
'His life span, the mournful toll
Declares the exit of his soul
Grim Death is comet His life is callid
To take its tight-the means a scald
4e who are young come learn your end,
BY deep repentance make Christ your friend
Over the grave "where lies the body
of Mrs. Phebe Gillit, wife to Mr. Will.
lam Gillit, Junr., who died on February
10, 1856, twenty-nine years old, is one of
the most remarkable tributes in the en-
tire graveyard Manifestly it was writ
ten by her husband, Its orthography is
unusually eccentric even for those days
of arbitrary spelling. Here it is:
'Her Dying Words unto her husband are:
Refrain your passions Why so much Dis
paire
It's the will of God! hope it's for the Best
For you! For me! And for my mothers
less,
To whome adue! To God and you
now Commend that care
-Pattorn of Patriots to the end of life
Now Ded, she speaks TO every Living wife,
Petl Such JueS Should be laid in Dust:
Men are Unworthy and the Lord is just"
Drollest and decidedly most realistic
of all the inscriptions are those on the
gravestones of Miss Mary Fowler and
Mrs Sarah Bryan, consort of Captain
Richard Bryan. Miss Fowler was in
her 2ith year when she died on Feb. /,
1892. This is the inscription that was
composed in her honor:
Molly, though pleasant in her day
Was suddenly seized and sent away:
How soon she's ripe, how soon she's rotten,
Sent to the grave and soon forgotten
--NeW York Commercial Advertiser.
Photographs ON Watch Cases.